6o8 



COLLEGE ZOOLOGY 



The spotted sandpiper, Actitis macularia (Fig. 496), which may 

 be taken as an example of this enormous family, occurs through- 

 out temperate North America. It lives in the vicinity of water, 

 and feeds upon insects, earthworms, and other small animals. 

 The four eggs are laid in a hollow in the ground, and the young 

 are able to run about as soon as hatched. 



The Jacanid^e are tropical marsh-birds, with very long toes 

 and claws enabling them to walk over lily pads without sinking. 

 The Mexican jacana, Jacana spinosa, reaches Texas. 



Fig. 497. — Common tern, Sterna hit undo. (From Davenport, 



after Fuertes.) 



The Larid^e are known as gulls, terns, skimmers, kittiwakes, 

 noddies, skuas, and jaegers. The American herring-gulls, Lams 

 argentatus, are about two feet long. They breed along the 

 Atlantic coast and also in the interior from Minnesota north- 

 wards. Their nests are built on the ground of grasses, seaweed, 

 etc., and two or three eggs are laid. The terns, or sea-swallows 

 (Fig. 497) , are as a rule smaller and slimmer than the gulls. They 

 frequent the shores of both fresh and salt water, feed upon fish, 



